[ EDITORIAL ]

Prescription-Drug Abuse: Fund Drug Database

Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, October 8, 2012 at 10:37 p.m.

Unreasonable restrictions on the funding of Florida's prescription-drug database threaten to act like a poison pill — dooming the database just as it begins to prove its effectiveness.

The restrictions — denying not only state dollars but contributions from pharmaceutical companies — were written into the database legislation to appease Gov. Rick Scott and others who initially opposed the bill. Financial support was limited to grants and donations.

Those limited funds are on the verge of drying up. Operators of the year-old database, which tracks excessive prescriptions of powerful painkillers and other controlled substances, have only enough money to last through next June.

Still, that's enough time for Scott and the Legislature to amend the law, and enable the database to continue working to save lives and curb prescription-drug abuse.

EFFECTIVE PROGRAM

The record shows that the database and other steps taken by Florida in the past year are helping to clean up the state's image as America's "pill mill capital."

In January, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced that:

Sales of the painkiller oxycodone, one of the most abused prescription drugs, fell 20 percent from 2010 to 2011.

Florida doctors bought 97 percent less oxycodone last year than in 2010.

In 2010, 90 of the top oxycodone-buying physicians were in Florida. Last year, that number dropped to 13.

Two years ago, lack of a prescription-drug database in Florida encouraged the growth of illicit pain clinics, and drug dealers and abusers swarmed into the state to make high-volume purchases. Meanwhile, seven Floridians a day died from painkiller abuse.

Today, that abuse is in sharp decline.

The Legislature should not jeopardize that success by denying the necessary funding for the database program, which costs about $500,000 a year to operate.

Ideally, the Legislature would provide annual funding for this critical program. At a minimum, it should remove the restriction on funding by pharmaceutical companies.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of the OxyContin brand of oxycodone, has offered to contribute $1 million toward funding the Florida database. That money alone would fund the database two years.

INTERIM SOLUTION

Scott and some legislators said they didn't want to rely on a short-term grant for a program that might later require state funding. But that argument makes no sense in light of the program's funding mechanism — scrambling for piecemeal federal grants, plus small public and private donations.

Scott and the Legislature should revisit the law, recognize the positive impact of the database, and remove the poison pill of limited funding that threatens its future.

<p>Unreasonable restrictions on the funding of Florida's prescription-drug database threaten to act like a poison pill — dooming the database just as it begins to prove its effectiveness.</p><p>The restrictions — denying not only state dollars but contributions from pharmaceutical companies — were written into the database legislation to appease Gov. Rick Scott and others who initially opposed the bill. Financial support was limited to grants and donations.</p><p>Those limited funds are on the verge of drying up. Operators of the year-old database, which tracks excessive prescriptions of powerful painkillers and other controlled substances, have only enough money to last through next June.</p><p>Still, that's enough time for Scott and the Legislature to amend the law, and enable the database to continue working to save lives and curb prescription-drug abuse.</p><p> </p><p><b>EFFECTIVE PROGRAM</b></p><p>The record shows that the database and other steps taken by Florida in the past year are helping to clean up the state's image as America's "pill mill capital."</p><p>In January, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced that:</p><p>Sales of the painkiller oxycodone, one of the most abused prescription drugs, fell 20 percent from 2010 to 2011.</p><p>Florida doctors bought 97 percent less oxycodone last year than in 2010.</p><p>In 2010, 90 of the top oxycodone-buying physicians were in Florida. Last year, that number dropped to 13.</p><p>Two years ago, lack of a prescription-drug database in Florida encouraged the growth of illicit pain clinics, and drug dealers and abusers swarmed into the state to make high-volume purchases. Meanwhile, seven Floridians a day died from painkiller abuse.</p><p>Today, that abuse is in sharp decline.</p><p>The Legislature should not jeopardize that success by denying the necessary funding for the database program, which costs about $500,000 a year to operate.</p><p>Ideally, the Legislature would provide annual funding for this critical program. At a minimum, it should remove the restriction on funding by pharmaceutical companies.</p><p>Purdue Pharma, the maker of the OxyContin brand of oxycodone, has offered to contribute $1 million toward funding the Florida database. That money alone would fund the database two years.</p><p> </p><p><b>INTERIM SOLUTION</b></p><p>Scott and some legislators said they didn't want to rely on a short-term grant for a program that might later require state funding. But that argument makes no sense in light of the program's funding mechanism — scrambling for piecemeal federal grants, plus small public and private donations.</p><p>Scott and the Legislature should revisit the law, recognize the positive impact of the database, and remove the poison pill of limited funding that threatens its future.</p>